The Things We All Seem to Hold Onto

Here is Your Permission Slip to Get Rid of These 9 Common Items

We all save things we really don’t need. Sometimes it’s clothes we’ve never even worn or more coffee mugs than we could possibly use in a week.

There are even common guidelines for how long we should save some items. Tax records and bank records, for example, should be kept for 7 years. But don’t let this advice fool you into thinking that these recommendations apply to everything!

I’ve seen a lot of homes, a lot of closets, and a lot of offices in my years as a professional organizer, and it’s interesting how so many of us keep the same types of things.

Are you curious to read about the most common items (that we don’t need!) that pretty much everyone holds onto?

9 Things In Your Home That You Need to Get Rid Of

I’m going to list these in order of the easiest to slightly more difficult things to get rid of. As you’ll see, there is probably not a lot of sentimental value attached to some of these, but as you go down the list, it gets a bit more personal.

1. Manuals 

Most people have far too many paper manuals they’ve saved. From toaster ovens to curling irons, so many things in our homes come with manuals. Back in the 1980s and ’90s we had to save these things if we wanted to refer to them later. But now you can find everything online. Even if there is no official manual, I guarantee you that if you need to know how to operate or troubleshoot an issue with something you own, you can find a video on YouTube about it.

2. Apple product boxes 

This can really apply to any sort of technology box. There is no need to hold onto the boxes that your Apple products, Samsung products, etc., come in, but everybody seems to do it! 

You can feel ok adding all your Apple boxes to recycling, especially after you’ve owned a product for a few months and can be sure it doesn’t have any defects.

It’s easy to end up with lots of Apple product boxes, or any kind of product boxes. They’re so lovely, people often keep them long past their usefulness. (Photo by Saad Chaudhry, Unsplash)

3. Magazines

Most people have stacks of magazines that they intend to read but haven’t. We let them pile up for months and months because we want to read them. If you have had magazines for more than three months, go ahead and either recycle them or donate them. Some public libraries, schools, senior care homes, or hospitals will take magazine donations.

Keeping magazines is a classic case of fear of missing out (FOMO). We genuinely want to read them but never have the time. We consume so much information already in our modern lives, give yourself the freedom of letting go of old magazines.

4.  Appliance boxes 

People often hold onto boxes from new appliances. Sometimes you want to save them to use for moving one day, even years from now. You can usually get moving boxes for free from supermarkets or small local shops. So appliance boxes in your home are just taking up valuable space. Even if they’re stacked against a wall in our laundry room, they’re creating visual clutter and stress.

Once you know that a product is working, and there is no need to return the item to a store, you can feel safe in getting rid of the box it arrived in. Cardboard boxes are some of the easiest things to recycle, which makes these types of boxes particularly easy to remove from your home.

5. Old technology

When you see the term “old technology” you probably think of Apple IIe computers or IBM desktop computers, but for this category, I’m also referring to old TV remotes, MP3 players, random charging cables, earbuds you no longer use, and any number of other large and small electronics. 

You might be holding onto some technology because you aren’t sure how to remove personal information from devices. You can often find details online about how to remove personal data from devices. Also, some recycling programs handle removing your data when you donate items to recycle.

Or you might be saving items because you’re not sure how to correctly recycle them. That’s where special recycling programs for electronics are helpful. Some county recycling programs hold special hazardous waste recycling days or have drop-off places that accept electronics. 

In Atlanta, the Centers for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) will accept old electronics for recycling. Items donated through CHaRM are put through a series of magnetic machines that erase any personal information stored on the devices.

The number one reason people save electronics is they think they’re going to use them again someday. If you haven’t used an item in the past year, you’re probably not going to ever use it again. Plus, some older electronics contain hazardous materials or chemicals that really shouldn’t be sitting around your home deteriorating. Some newer electronics contain materials that can be recycled and reused to make new products. Every recycled part that can be reused is better for the environment because new material is often rare and must be obtained from mining. Those mining operations can be terrible for the environment, and they are typically in areas with lots of regional conflicts.

If you’re holding onto older technology that’s 30+ years old in the hopes that it will be worth something, go ahead and sell it! Why wait any longer? 

Most people hold onto old phones or outdated electronics. (Photo by Saif71, Unsplash)

6. Old books

This one is tough for those of us who love to read, but hear me out. How many books do you own that you will actually read again?

Maybe you’ve collected a lot of books because you want to read them but haven’t gotten around to reading all of them. Maybe you have read all the books you own, and part of your identity is wrapped up in being a reader and a book lover. 

It’s unlikely there are more than a dozen books in your home that you would reread in the future. Any book you won’t read again is sitting there, taking up space for no reason. Books are meant to be read and shared. You can sell books to used bookstores or donate them to little free libraries, public libraries, or local nonprofits who could either sell or distribute them.

Great books can be so magical, but their potential is wasted if they aren’t read. Plus, just imagine how your old books could bring joy to someone else.

7. Grandma’s china

So many people inherit sets of delicate, fancy china from relatives, and that china sits in a storage box or in a cabinet. These days, it’s rare to use fine china for parties or get-togethers.

If you’re holding onto china for sentimental reasons, try using it for a holiday dinner. Then donate or sell pieces you don’t love or don’t intend to use. There is no rule saying you have to keep entire sets together or that you have to pass china along to your children or younger relatives of younger generations. Plus, if china isn’t useful to us today, it’s probably not going to be useful or popular for our descendants either.

We often save china we’ve inherited from relatives out of sentimental reasons, even when we never use it. (Photo by Haley Parson, Unsplash)

8. Clothes that are too small

We’re all guilty of this one. No matter what size clothing you wear now, you probably have clothes in your closet or dresser that you’ve outgrown. Maybe there is a beautiful skirt that used to be your favorite, but it’s been too snug for a couple of years. You’re holding onto it in the hopes of losing weight and fitting into it again one day.

In reality, those clothes that are too small are just a depressing reminder of the weight you want to lose. Those clothes you used to love—that you tell yourself you still love—are preventing you from appreciating the body you have now. Every time you look at your “goal weight” clothes, you feel guilty and probably even have some negative self talk going on.  

That guilt and that shame is just as unhealthy as any extra pounds you might be carrying around. 

Donate those clothes to a local shelter or other nonprofit. When you lose weight you can celebrate by buying yourself new clothes you will love and appreciate even more than your old pieces.

9. Baby clothes

This one might be the most difficult of all. If you’re a parent, you might be saving baby clothes to pass down to your kids to use when they have children.

While this is a lovely idea, it might not work out well in reality. Even in great conditions, baby clothes stored for a couple of decades can become faded, stained, or the victims of pests. 

There is a real possibility that the clothes you’ve stored won’t be in good enough shape for your children to use for their children. You might also become too emotionally attached to them to let them go. Or you might be offended if fashion changes and your child chooses not to use the clothes you’ve saved.

Rather than taking up valuable space in your home with baby clothes that won’t see the light of day for several years, you could donate the clothes to children in need right now. You could choose a few special, most beloved pieces to set aside and save for the future. But you don’t need to keep boxes and boxes of clothes in the hopes that they will become your grandchild’s entire wardrobe.

You probably have lots of photos of your children wearing the clothes you love so much, and you can keep all those photos. They take up a lot less space than the boxes of clothes.

Donate the clothes, so they can be used and appreciated by another child who needs them.

Now Enjoy the Space You’ve Made

I hope this list helps make it easier to let go of some of the items taking up space in your home. Most of these are items we keep without really thinking about them at all. These are just habits we’ve picked up over the years from our parents or others in our lives.

It’s so interesting, and comforting in a way, to know that most of us tend to save the same things, even when we don’t need to.

I’m always here for you if you’d like more one-on-one advice for your specific space. Let me know if you’d like help.

Xoxo,

Michelle